Paid Search on Mobile Over Double Yahoo and Bing Combined

Mobile continues to offer the cheapest click costs, with an average CPC of £0.26 in Q4, 2011Mobile and Tablet devices were responsible for 13.4 per cent of all paid search clicks in 2011, according to Latitude Digital Marketing's Mobile Review. That's equivalent to two and half times as many clicks as the entirety of Yahoo and Bing paid search combined.

The report also found that 11.9 per cent of all website visits now come from mobile and Tablet devices, with 7.6 per cent of unique visitors coming via smartphones.

“Smartphones and Tablets are estimated to represent 20 per cent of all Paid Search clicks by the end of 2012,” says Alex Hoye, CEO of Latitude Digital Marketing. “At this rate it’s clear that mobile will provide the majority of traffic – it is not a question of if, but when. Not only does this mean it is vital for businesses to get their mobile strategies right, but it also sets a challenge for businesses and marketers, to remain prominent with the most relevant messaging, as the consumer moves between screens.” 

The Mobile Review report also predicts that smartphones will account for 10 per cent of all website visits by the end of 2012, that this is the year that NFC will achieve widespread consumer awarenessm and that the iPhone5 will be released by the end of Q3.  Additionally, it forecasts that Nokia will move towards Android handsets, following low adoption of Windows Phone, and that Google will introduce algorithmic penalties for websites that are not mobile optimised, dropping them in organic search rankings.